p. 199 | The Divine Helper

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1873

The Divine Helper.

We believe in the Holy Spirit; and this faith is full of comfort, full of power. We could not hope to live with any approach, even the most distant, to the Christian standard without it; we could not go down to our graves “sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust” unless at each stage and every hour this our faith were melting, and flowing in a sweet experience. Without controversy, great is the power of the Holy Spirit; and after all controversies, “the faithful in Christ Jesus” are essentially of one mind in respect to its office in the economy of divine grace. What is that office? It is impossible to phrase it, in all its variety and comprehensiveness, in a definition, or to describe it in full by any delineation. But it may help us in the endeavor to see what it is, if we suppose that Christianity had handed down to us only the knowledge of God as the Father, and the example of a perfect human life in the beloved Son, with all the ethical and even spiritual instructions recorded in the gospel. At first thought, it might seem that this is enough; but a little reflection and the testimony of experience will satisfy us that something more is needed. For how shall man, infirm of moral purpose, with only languid and intermittent religious desires, immersed so largely in material interests, with a great burden of sin resting upon him—how shall he brace himself up to the task, and pursue it unaided, of transforming the frail creature he is into a true child of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ? Surely something else is needed, some power, some hope, not found in words even the heavenliest, nor in examples though the most perfect.

And if we are going to express this deepest want in the form of prayer, we should bow our knees before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and say: Send down, O Lord, thy Holy Spirit to renew us with might in the inner man; to make us strong in whatever is right to do thy will; to assist our feeble endeavors; to quicken our dull consciences; to take away our shame and fear; to give a fresh start and glow to our affections; and to keep our minds fixed, trusting in thee. A divine Helper who can enter the inner chamber of man’s life, the very holy of holies in that temple of God man is, touch the secret springs of his moral being, and supply new impulse and force to his faint, weary, struggling soul; a divine Comforter too, to allay the fevers of the worn and anxious brain, to still the fears and the hurried throbbings of the disquieted bosom, to plead with and mollify the accusing conscience,—such a Comforter, such a Helper, is not this man’s eternal need? Would not the divine dispensations be incomplete without such an effluence from God into the soul that is open and waiting to receive it? A Father, uncommunicative, having no immediate connection with his children, no way of reaching their hearts in their sorest needs, is scarcely a Father to be loved “with all the heart and soul and mind and strength.”

Therefore the truth of the Fatherhood of God is supplemented by that of the perpetual coming of the Holy Spirit, “to bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;” to scatter the shades of doubt, and confirm the word spoken in the outward ear; to calm sorrow; to breathe peace; and to witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. Christ might be all he is to us, and the Holy Spirit not known. God might be our Father, and no Holy Spirit visit us. But who could spare that breath divine, now that it is come and is forever coming? Whose prayer falters in the song:—

“Holy Spirit, light divine. Shine upon this heart of mine; Chase the shades of night away; Turn the darkness into day.

“Holy Spirit, love divine, Glow within this heart of mine; Kindle every high desire; Cleanse my soul in thy pure fire.

“Holy Spirit, joy divine, Cheer this saddened heart of mine; Bid my troubled thoughts be still; With thy peace my spirit fill.”

—Monthly Religious Magazine.